Sydney, Jan 13, 2009 (ABN Newswire) - AUDIO: Bandanna Energy Limited (ASX:BND) is pleased to announce that its applications EPCA 1179 and EPCA 1180 have now been approved by the Queensland Government authorities. The new EPCs, 1179 and 1180, are located in the eastern Galilee Basin and lie contiguous with EPCs 1048 and 1049 which have been previously granted to the Company.

The four EPCs, covering an area of 2,953 km2, lie immediately to the south of the township of Alpha and the Alpha - Emerald railway. These four tenements comprise the Alpha Coal Project in respect of which AMCI has an agreement under which it is able to farm in and earn up to a 50% interest from Bandanna by funding up to $25 million in expenditure.

Operated by AMCI, to date the Alpha JV has completed some 17,947m of drilling. Exploration drilling for coal quality will continue through January 2009. In addition to this it is expected that a JORC compliant resource for EPC1049 will be delineated by the end March 2009.

About Bandanna Energy Limited

Bandanna Energy Limited (ASX:BND) is uniquely positioned to become Australia's next coal producer. The company's core activities are exploration, project evaluation and development of thermal and PCI coal assets located in Queensland, Australia.

Bandanna Energy is the only ASX listed company with substantial coal assets in both the Bowen and Galilee basins subject to EIS and advanced mine studies. The company is committed to working constructively with the communities in which it operates, and delivering growing returns to shareholders, government and the community.

Bandanna Energy's Springsure Creek underground thermal coal project is scheduled to commence production in mid-2015. Bandanna is a 14% shareholder in Wiggins Island Coal Export Terminal (WICET) Stage 1 at Gladstone, with port allocation of 4Mtpa for the Springsure Creek Project, and has also secured the necessary infrastructure capacity for the integrated rail haulage of coal from the Springsure Creek Project to port.